Demolition begins on 1960s span of the Howard Frankland Bridge
TAMPA - The Florida Department of Transportation has begun demolition of the oldest span of the Howard Frankland Bridge.
On Friday, the FDOT announced the start of deconstruction of the 1960s span of the bridge, which took drivers from Pinellas County to Hillsborough County.
The FDOT says more than 200,000 drivers use the Howard Frankland Bridge every day.
Timeline:
The $865 million Howard Frankland Bridge replacement project was announced in 2017 to help reduce traffic congestion in the busy area.
The bridge is a major connector between Hillsborough and Pinellas Counties.
"This is one major connection point for the rest of Tampa Bay area," FDOT Construction Project Manager David Alonso said.
Construction on the project began in 2020.
RELATED: New traffic pattern coming to Howard Frankland Bridge Wednesday morning
After more than four years of construction, the new Howard Frankland Bridge opened in the spring, shifting southbound I-275 traffic.
The old bridge, which was built in the 1960s, is now at least 65-years-old. FDOT officials say it's time for the bridge to be demolished.
On Wednesday, northbound I-275 traffic shifted from the old bridge to the 1990s span of the Howard Frankland Bridge, which was recently refurbished.
This section was previously the southbound span of the bridge.
Demolition of the old span of the bridge is now underway.
What they're saying:
"It's like the opposite of an assembly line," Alonso said. "We're deconstructing the bridge."
The deconstruction of the bridge is a methodical process with a lot of crews and moving parts.
"They have a lot of water vessels out there, a lot of barges," Alonso said. "The cranes are on the barges, that are ready to stay out here to start picking pieces off the bridge and loading them on the barges, and they'll take them down the bay, where that material will be processed."
FDOT officials say deconstruction will start from the center of the bridge and crews will work their way out in both directions.
Officials say the bridge is about three miles long, with about one and a half miles of causeway on either side.
"Some of them are working the sock-cutting operations," Alonso said. "The rest are lifting operations and once we get into the substructure, it's going to be a lot of work to remove the last members, which are the piles, out of the bottom of the bay."
If you're driving along the Howard Frankland Bridge, you'll see the deconstruction happen in phases.
The demolition sets up additional road improvement projects on the horizon.
"We opened up the Gateway Expressway system recently, last year, and so, we've got future projects, with the Westshore project taking over on the Hillsborough side," Alonso said. "And this is just one major connection for that system that we're building."
What's next:
The bridge demolition is expected to take eight to nine months.
The FDOT says the shared-use path and express lane on the new Howard Frankland Bridge are expected to open in the spring of 2026.
The Source: Information for this report came from the Florida Department of Transportation.